Walking the walk

If you ever, ever wanted validation as to the importance of transparency with regard to clinical outcomes, please read this comment on the post I wrote about how we introduced it at BIDMC:

For me, a trainee at the time, the most important effect was that it underlined a shared sense of mission and purpose around quality improvement. The reporting didn't have a big direct effect on my practice--I just tried to learn how to put in central lines the right way, while my elders had already defined what the "right way" was. The indirect effect was as part of a sense of purpose, though. The absence of a sense of purpose of this kind is toxic. For instance, if you have an advertising campaign that emphasizes our kindness or humanity, but we have no policies or practices that distinguish our kindness or goodness from anyone else's, it may be persuasive to our market as a branding tactic, but it's actively alienating to those of us who work within this system. Conversely, if we walk the walk more than talk the talk, it's inspiring. Posting the data probably influenced very few patients one way or another--but it definitely made many of us feel like we were walking the walk.